French salon to set up shop in India

Jean Claude Beguine (JCB), a Euro 150-million French hair and beauty salon chain, is readying itself to style Indians.

The Paris-based company plans to take a plunge into the Indian market by opening its first salon and a training academy in Mumbai by May.

"We are currently in the process of identifying suitable locations including one at Bandra for our first salon and a training academy in Mumbai, one of which will be finalised in a couple of months. We intend to close the 2007 calendar year with three salons, and our idea is to set up around 50 salons in the top 10 metros and four academies with a total investment of Rs 150 crore in the next five years," Dharmendra Manwani, chief executive of JCB India, said.

The company would initially focus on Mumbai and Delhi and then expand to other metros such as Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai from the second year. The other three academies would be opened at Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata to train in-house resources.

Each salon, which will have around 5,000 sft of carpet area manned by 12-13 hair stylists and 5-6 hair colourists, is expected to achieve break even from the end of second year or the beginning of the third year, Manwani said.

The company would be a mix of both Indian and foreign hair stylists. "JCB currently employs around 4,000 hair stylists across 400 outlets worldwide, and we intend to move some of them to India. But no matter where the stylist comes from, every stylist and colourist will be trained at the JCB academy in Paris before performing at the salon. Other than training at Paris, the stylists will be trained all year via the web-based JCB proprietary training system, Besides, every salon will have an art director who will assist customers on their beauty needs and will ensure consistent delivery of services," he said.

JCB runs a channel "� Beguine TV "� that is telecast across all its salons to keep customers abreast of the latest trends and fashions in hairstyling and colouring. It is planning to bring this concept to India as well.

The company would also merchandise an entire line of hair and beauty products that includes hair colours, hair gels, full makeup and skin care products at its salons.

"We are the global partners for the 'L'Orian' brand hair and beauty care products, which will be sold along with our own products at our salons in India. We expect the sale of these products to contribute around 30 per cent to our turnover in India," Manwani said.